FROM THE HOME NEWS TRIBUNE (Gannett Co., Inc.)
02/9/07
By ERICA HARBATKIN
STAFF WRITER
EDISON — The public got a peek at the township's future Thursday at a Smart Growth Open House, part of an initiative intended to involve residents in the redevelopment process.
The event, held at the Stelton Community Center, provided residents with a first draft of the township's vision plan — largely based on feedback provided at the first Smart Growth Summit, held in November.
Township officials are working in conjunction with the Department of Transportation and other state and county agencies to improve the Route 27 and Route 1 corridors while planning for a town center.
"Over the years, due to a lack of care and attention, (the corridors have) fallen into a state of disrepair," said Mayor Jun Choi, who noted that the township is in a transitional phase. "We're moving away from a manufacturing economy to a service and high technology economy, and what Edison lacks is a strong sense of place — an identity."
Residents trickled in and out of the event over the course of the event, which ran from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. and culminated with a presentation outlining the vision plan.
Joe and Lucille Sudnick, who have lived in the township for more than 40 years, showed up to address traffic concerns they had near their house, which is located between the Revlon and Ford sites — both of which are going to undergo changes in the coming years.
"We're worried about the traffic — not so much what they want to put there," said Joe Sudnick, who is concerned that the area will become more congested with increased development.
"Right now (the jughandles) are jammed," Lucille Sudnick said. "We have a hard time crossing (Route 27) now. If Revlon puts all the buildings here, we're not going to be able to get out."
That's where the Department of Transportation comes in, said Gary Toth, the DOT's director of project planning and development.
"(The township was) worried if the roads can't handle the traffic now, what happens when you bring in all this development?" Toth said.
The answer, he said, is linking smaller roads to allow for more than one route to main corridors. Widening the corridors in the township would probably cost about $200 million, Toth estimated, but the township can deal with traffic issues more cheaply in the planning phases.
"If we get in and do the planning up front, we can get it so (developments have) a public value, too," Toth said, noting that developers that need to build roads anyway can build them in a way that serves the public good.
The project in Edison is one of 12 projects statewide in which the DOT is working with municipalities to improve corridors. A recent DOT calculation found that widening those corridors would cost about $6.7 billion — money the DOT is trying to save with these projects.
The township, meanwhile, is considering the creation of a sort of town center on the old Revlon site. It would be a mixed-use center — similar to Metuchen's — and could include a park, according to drafts displayed Thursday.
Final plans could also include extended greenway trails and bicycle routes and raised pedestrian bridges passing over the highways.
"We want to try to get people out of their cars and into the shopping areas," said Robert Takash, president of the Edison Greenways Group, who's hoping for more pedestrian crossings.
Hannah Twaddell, a project manager with the consulting team involved in the Smart Growth Initiative, said the greenway system would help with that goal.
"If you link together the schools and the parks and the neighborhoods with greenways, it really ups the quality of life," she said.